NHL DFS Slate Summary: Tuesday, October 17th
Welcome to the RotoGrinders NHL DFS Slate Summary. In this article, we’ll concentrate on the key elements of DFS success while delivering analysis on the upcoming slate of NHL games for DraftKings and FanDuel. We’ll discuss today’s NHL DFS player projections, player correlations and NHL stacking, NHL starting lineups, differentiation tactics using NHL projected ownership, and recommendations on ways to create lineup diversity if entering multiple lineups using LineupHQ.
NHL DFS Picks: Slate Summary for Tuesday, October 17th
Today’s Games
Slate Overview
Throughout the young season, I’ve referenced the courses of a meal such as the “cocktail hour” and “appetizers” for some of the smaller slates. Well we’ve finally made it to the main course. And my friends, it’s a steak dinner with all of the sides you can imagine. We have two monster contests on DraftKings with $50k to first in the $15 and $100k to first in the $360. It’s a little surprising that DraftKings chose an eight game slate for it, but personally I think it’s the perfect amount of games. Not to hot, not too cold, just right. I also really like the blend of games we’re getting. There are definitely some teams/players in favorable spots, but I don’t expect the chalk to get too out of hand. The Hurricanes are by far the biggest favorite according to Vegas, but DFS players know that Carolina can be a nightmare to decipher where the fantasy goodness is going to come from. After that, there’s a handful of teams (Wild, Oilers, Islanders and Avalanche) who players will gravitate towards, although there are equally viable pivots at lower ownership in my opinion, as we’ll discuss below. Let’s try to take down these massive tourneys!
Note: I know tonight’s contests will be bringing in plenty of new players to NHL DFS. Feel free to ask any questions in the Discord channel. It’s the best community around and people are always willing to provide their insight and expertise.
Top Skaters
Look, you can definitely play the most expensive players like Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Leon Draisaitl. There’s a reason they will be heavily owned as they are three of the best players in hockey. For today, especially given the top-heavy nature of payouts in the big DK tournaments, I wanted to highlight players who aren’t in the Top 5 in salary.
Tage Thompson
Tage Thompson and the Sabres have gotten off to a brutal start to the season. I think it’s understandable given they’ve had a few tough matchups against the Islanders and Rangers, two of the better defensive/goaltending teams in the league. Tonight, things should be much easier, at least on offense for Buffalo. The Lightning have struggled mightily to keep pucks out of their net without outstanding netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy. Despite playing three teams who aren’t expected to be elite this season, they’ve allowed an average of 4.66 goals per game. The Sabres will be eager to shed their winless start, and Thompson should have a green light all night. Due to the other quality expensive options I mentioned above (and Kaprizov below), I expect his ownership to be very reasonable, making him an excellent GPP play.